Jaune Arc
"The Vytal Festival! Oh this is absolutely wonderful!" Weiss sighed in contentment, closing her eyes.
Both teams JNPR and RWBY were walking through Vale having received permission to take an excursion into the city.
"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much Weiss." Ruby said from behind Weiss. "It's kinda weirding me out..."
Jaune had to agree. The generally icy heiress looked like she was having the time of her life, displaying more happiness than she ever had before, even when Jaune had added the ability for her Dust rapier, Myternaster, to use Gravity dust.
"How could you 'not' smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances, parades, a tournament! Oh the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breath taking." Weiss practically sighed the last sentence, acting like a stereotypical princess in a movie.
"You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring." Yang crossed her arms as they followed Weiss down a street.
Jaune tuned their sister team's bickering out and turned to his own. Nora was chattering away at Ren who seemed to have a glazed look on his face. Typical.
Looking at Pyrrha, he noticed an odd expression on her face as she looked at the crowds around them. Some of them were trying not to stare, but were failing miserably.
"Hey Pyrrha, you alright?" Jaune asked, placing a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.
She visibly jumped at the question. "What, oh yes Jaune, I am completely fine. No need to worry!" She tried her best to give a convincing smile but Jaune knew better having spent months with her.
"Pyrrha, I'm your partner and a friend. I think I can tell when there is something wrong. I don't want you to go through it alone. If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask." Jaune made his tone as reassuring as possible.
He could feel the tension slipping from her as his hand stayed on her shoulder. "Thank you Jaune, that means a lot." He smiled at that and continued walking, Pyrrha following.
The two teams followed Weiss as she headed over to the docks, where boats were constantly unloading passengers.
"Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?" Yang whined.
"They smell like fish." Ruby held her nose as she said this.
Wait a second, did Blake just sniff the air? And did her bow just twitch on its own?
Jaune ignored that, looking back at the boat that was currently unloading its cargo.
"I think that we, as students of Beacon, should represent our school to the students that are coming in today from Vacuo." Weiss announced with an air of slight superiority.
"She wants to spy on them to have an upper hand in the tournament." Blake's tone was dry.
"What? No! You can't prove that!" Weiss spluttered angrily as everyone laughed.
"Hey Weiss, you really should focus on the boat. A potential target is here." Jaune pointed at the boat he had been looking at.
A monkey faunus leapt off the side of the ship onto the pier, with two sailors yelling at him. He climbed up onto a lamppost, hanging upside down. He had a white unbuttoned shirt that showed off his frankly amazing abs. His jeans were rolled up a the ankles and his blonde hair went every which way.
"You no-good stowaway!" One sailor yelled.
"Hey! A "no-good" stow-away would have been caught. I'm a great stow-away." The faunus peeled a banana, scarfing it down.
A police officer walked towards him, opening his mouth to shout at him only to receive the peel square in the mouth.
The faunus flipped off the lamppost, landed on the ground and started running towards their group. As he ran by, he winked at Blake and continued on, disappearing in the crowd.
"Quick! We have to follow him! Because he may harm someone!" Weiss yelled, moving to chase.
"Weiss, why do you think he'll harm someone? He obviously just boarded the ship to get to Vale." Blake pulled Weiss back, speaking in a quiet voice.
"He entered Vale illegally without declaring himself and with weapons. For all we know he could be one of the White Fang. All they know is to lie, cheat, steal, and kill. All of which harm people." Weiss crossed her arms, glaring at Blake.
"Why would you assume that about him? He probably is a student, given his weapons. That doesn't excuse him stowing away, but you can't just assume he's here to do crime!" Blake was suddenly impassionate, her voice rising.
"Guys, relax. The police are after him and if he was planning something, he won't have time to do it. We can't do anything and arguing will just ruin the day. Come on, let's head to the other dock, a ship is starting to dock." Without waiting for a response, Jaune started walking towards the aforementioned ship. The others had no choice but to follow.
The rest of the day passed without incident, the faunus soon forgotten as both teams looked at the influx of students and the diversity they exhibited. Ruby oohed and aahed at all the weapons, causing everyone to laugh.
The real trouble began when the teams reached their rooms. JNPR was getting ready for bed when voices rang out from team RWBY's room across the hallway.
"People like me?!" Weiss's shrill voice.
"You're discriminatory!" Blake's normally quiet voice was raised and angry.
"I'm a victim! You want to know why I hate the white fang and anyone related to them? Why I don't particularly trust the faunus? It's because they have been at war with my family for years! My grandparents were killed in a car bomb while they were on vacation! My mother was assassinated soon after I was born! Board members and family friends disappeared without a trace.
My father grew distant, angry. Just the name Schnee became something that could get me killed! The fear and paranoia surrounding me made my childhood very, very difficult. Now do you understand?"
The revelation was met with stunned silence from both rooms with even Nora at a loss for something to say.
"That doesn't give you a right to hate all faunus!"
Jaune had a sneaking suspicion for the reason why Blake cared about the faunus so much.
"No, that definitely doesn't give me the right to hate them. What does give me the right is that almost all of them are liars, cheats, and scoundrels, eager to cause harm to any human that gets in their way!" Weiss's voice was somehow even angrier now.
"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"
If the silence after Weiss's statement was quiet, this was like the vacuum of space.
"Blake, no!" Ruby called out in vain as the sound of the door opening and shutting echoed.
Jaune looked at each of his teammates in turn. "Do you think we should help them figure it out? They are our friends."
Pyrrha merely shook her head. "I do not think it would be wise to meddle, Jaune. They are a team and they should figure this situation out on their own."
Jaune sighed, rubbing his eyes. He knew he could track Blake across Vale using the CCT to track her scroll.
"The least I can do is help them find her. She shouldn't spend the night alone in Vale."
Pyrrha relented, and nodded. "As long as you don't join the search."
"Great, I'll be right back." Jaune may have been the leader but Pyrrha made most of the decisions out of battle and Jaune preferred it that way.
He headed to RWBY's room. The door was ajar and there was no one inside. He checked his tracking program to confirm they were already out, heading towards the airship dock.
Shaking his head, he returned to JNPR's room. "No luck, they already left. Guess we'll have to wait and see how things turn out. Good night everyone."
Having already changed, Jaune plopped into bed, determined to track Blake as a Promethean.
He slipped into his Promethean I body. It had similar facial features, the same hair and eyes, but the body type was wildly different. This one was lean and had a black bodysuit on. He had carved channels in the suit that contained Barrier Dust, creating very light, invisible armor around him. It wouldn't protect against hard hits but small arms fire could be blocked and wouldn't tear the suit.
He had also covered the entire suit with sensors that conveyed information to his helmet's HUD. The helmet covered his head and had a blackened visor. He carried a small foldable knife, dust infused of course.
His helmet had a better version of his night vision goggles with higher resolution and lower latency. Checking over his equipment, he moved out once more into the night, for the first time going out to help a friend.
…
His tracker showed her location as static. He searched the location up and saw it was a dust shop. He headed over, searching for every person in the area around her. There was one person who was sitting close to her.
He searched the Vale database for the identity of the person.
Scroll Unregistered
Probably from outside Vale, Jaune concluded. He had not connected to the interkingdom CCT and only had the data for Vale. Getting up on the roof of a building opposite of the café, he zoomed in on his camera feed to see who Blake was talking to.
It was the faunus from the boat.
What the hell is she doing with him? When did they meet up? How did he even know where she was?
Jaune continued to watch them. The faunus talking to Blake could've been a White Fang member, coming to talk to Blake. He still was confused on that fact. Blake was a faunus and was ex-White Fang. He couldn't imagine the quiet reserved girl that stayed in the library for hours ever being a violent terrorist.
His musings ceased as he saw both of them get up and head towards the docks. They split up and Jaune started following Blake. She lay down in the shadows overlooking a freight ship stacked high with Schnee Dust Company crates.
Jaune managed to jump off a nearby building onto the top of the crane that was fortunately close. He crouched, watching as the monkey faunus approached, holding a bag. He pulled out a banana and started eating.
The next moment Jaune almost fell off the crane as Bullheads flew over him, landing in the area between the crates. Their cargo holds opened, ejecting many masked individuals.
White Fang, Jaune realized as he saw the distinctive Grimm masks they wore. Are Blake and the faunus going to help them or stop them? He didn't think it would the former but it didn't pay to be careless.
The last Bullhead landed and Jaune nearly fell off again as he saw Roman Torchwick stroll out, saying something that Jaune couldn't hear.
What the hell are White Fang doing with a human, especially one like Torchwick? Jaune couldn't see any logic in the partnership.
He glanced back at where the faunus and Blake were hiding to see Blake jump off onto the ship and run silently behind Torchwick. She held the cleaver portion of her weapon Gambol Shroud to Torchwick's throat.
She said something that cause Torchwick to roll his eyes and the White Fang members to shift uncomfortably. He saw Torchwick shove Blake back and aim his cane at her feet.
He fired, sending her flying back into a crate that a Bullhead was attempting to pick up. She landed on the ground, dazed. Torchwick aimed again and fired, a red glowing spinning sphere making its way towards Blake.
She managed to roll out of the way, the round making a small crater in the ground. Torchwick continued to fire and Blake continued to roll out of the way.
What the hell do I do? I can't stop Roman, it would be really suspicious for the Prometheans to step in. He couldn't just stand by while Torchwick, a hunter trained criminal, sought to kill her.
Torchwick stopped firing as Blake ran and hid behind a large crate. He stalked towards her, only to receive a banana peel and a boot to the face as the faunus landed on the flamboyant criminal's face.
Jaune saw more White Fang get out of Bullheads and move to surround the faunus and Torchwick shakily got up.
The members charged, those with swords charging first. The faunus spun and dodged as he punched and kicked each attacker away from him. Having a bit of breathing room, he pulled out the red nunchucks that he carried inside his shirt.
He spun them, joining them into a long staff that he used to dispatch more enemies. Jaune was amazed at the prowess of martial arts displayed by the faunus. Granted, it was against dubiously trained grunts, but it still was amazing to watch the complicated maneuvers.
The last of the goons dispatched, the faunus spun his staff to block a shot that Torchwick had fired at him. Blake landed behind Torchwick before he could fire another shot. Blake spun her sword and attacked form the right, then spinning and attacking from the left. Torchwick managed to block both strikes with his cane.
Blake used her semblance to leave an image of herself as she lunged at Torchwick, managing to hit him. She continued to use this tactic, forcing Torchwick onto the defensive.
Ultimately, Torchwick managed to anticipate where she would be and used his longer weapon to smack her in the face disorienting her. She tried her best to block the next couple of strikes but Torchwick managed to get past her defense twice and then sent her flying back with a powerful smash to her stomach.
The blonde haired faunus then jumped over Blake's prone body, nunchucks flying. He spun them around and Torchwick somehow managed to block every single strike. The faunus moved in even closer, hindering Torchwick's ability to defend with his long cane.
Apparently the weapons weren't just nunchucks that transformed into a staff, they were gunchucks that transformed into a staff. The faunus fired them multiple times at point blank, each shot causing Torchwick to stumble as the force was transferred to his aura.
While Torchwick could block strikes for the nunchucks themselves, the shots were taking a toll on him as he continued to be driven back.
Torchwick allowed himself to get hit, sending him flying backwards. He raised his weapon and fired at the surprised faunus who didn't manage to duck away in time. He went flying back, nearly landing on Blake's stirring form.
Torchwick stalked over, grinning madly. He raised his cane at the two meddling annoying kids when he suddenly didn't have his cane in his hand. He turned in place, seeing a stranger in a full black body suit and helmet, wearing Torchwick's hat and swinging his cane around. The only thing of color on the bodysuit was a blood red P.
Torchwick's eyes widened as he looked at the Promethean in front of him, surprise evident.
Been so long since I saw that expression on his face and it feels just as good.
Jaune walked over, putting Torchwick's hat back in its rightful place. "You just don't look right with it, you know. You look like you shop at Hot Topic or whatever emo store this place has."
Torchwick opened his mouth to say something but Jaune wasn't done yet. "Ah ah ah, you must be wondering why I stopped you from killing these children. The answer is because it's not cool to kill children. We may support you Torchwick, but we do not condone the killing of innocents. Until it benefits us of course." All this was said in an inappropriately cheerful tone.
Torchwick's face grew even more surprised and Jaune felt himself experience strong déjà vu. In a strained voice Torchwick managed to reply, "Are all of you alike? Prometheus C was a huge smartass just like you."
"We're more alike than you think, though tread carefully. C may be fine with your insolence but I may have a different line. You will know when you cross it; it will be very painful."
Torchwick drew back slightly. "Is that a threat?"
"Why yes, it is. C wasn't wrong about you; you look smarter than you are." Jaune gave enough of a pause to let the insult sink in. "Anyways, I want you to deliver two crates of Dust to the location C had given you. A tax for your rude behavior."
Torchwick seethed but knew that the Prometheans and him were not on equal ground. They had direct contact with Cinder and that meant they outranked him. But that didn't mean he liked it, dammit!
"That's a good boy!" Jaune yelled out one more taunt at the retreating figure of Torchwick before turning to the faunus and Blake, who were now both awake and staring at him.
"A Promethean? What are you doing here?" Blake eyed him suspiciously and Jaune couldn't blame her.
"I think a little gratitude would be helpful, no? I just stopped Roman there from blowing both of you to itty bitty pieces."
A stunned silence set in as both the faunus looked at each other realizing their close brush with death.
"Did you guys think that you were invincible? That two hunters in training, first years from the sight of you, could take on a criminal wanted across Vale? Someone who hasn't been caught by the entire police and even some Hunters?"
Both of them looked away from him in shame, realizing their idiocy. Sometimes all it took for you to feel stupid was someone just stating what you did.
"You both don't look stupid so maybe it was just hubris? Think about it. What would your teammates, your friends, go through if they found your bodies here? Would they praise your sacrifice or curse your bravery? Seriou-"
Jaune didn't have time to finish his sentence as something struck him hard in the side followed by a large crack. He was hurled across the ship, crashing and rolling, his Barrier dust shield breaking. His aura had taken a large dip and he scrambled behind a crate to prevent whatever had hit him from hitting him again.
That was Crescent Rose, Jaune thought, finally recognizing the sound of the sniper-scythe. And that means Ruby is here. Time to skedaddle.
Jaune crept into the shadows again, sneaking around the perimeter of the ship. Not being able to resist, he waved out.
"Good shot that! But you will have to try harder than that!" He promptly ducked back into the shadows and made his way back to Beacon, satisfied with how everything had turned out. Until Ruby had shown up at least, but you couldn't have everything.
…
In the morning, Jaune was relieved to see that team RWBY seemed to be even more close knit. It seemed like Weiss and Blake had buried the hatchet and decided to ignore Blake's past.
He had learned the faunus was called Sun and was a student that had come in from Mistral to participate in the Vytal Festival's tournament. He had snuck aboard the ship after missing the flight that the rest of his team, SSSN (which was pronounced Sun. Mistral seemed to care even less about team names and sense) had taken.
Everyone was having fun and joking around at the breakfast table. Jaune was thoroughly enjoying himself and so obviously life had to put an end to that, in the form of a phone call from Torchwick.
Jaune had taken the call and tried to not to start immediately yelling. Roman was one of the whiniest people he knew when things didn't go his way. Jaune listened to him rant about the incident at the dock and how Jaune's 'red eyed band of clowns' were trashing his reputation and how Torchwick wouldn't be able to so much as rent a paperclip from anyone if he continued to be humiliated like that.
Apparently all faunus have really good hearing and guess who made up all the White Fang soldiers?
Jaune had interrupted Torchwick and told him that he would put in a request but couldn't do promise anything.
If Torchwick continued to be a pain every time Jaune made fun of him, Jaune would…well Jaune still wouldn't stop. It was just too much damn fun.
Jaune ended the call before Torchwick could continue his tirade. He had a bunch of weapon repairs that were scheduled for today and he wanted to get them out of the way so he could keep working.
He headed back up to his lab after finishing breakfast. He pulled out the first weapon, a cross between a sword of similar design to a gladiator's and a stun gun. The problem was that the prongs of the stun gun would keep getting stuck as they shot out of the handle. Jaune shook his head. Letting students design their own weapons was not the best idea, himself excluded.
He practically took the weapon apart and rearranged some of the components and mechashift mechanisms to make shooting the leads of the stun gun faster and easier. He had made the weapon lighter while he was at it, taking out a lot of the unneeded parts and remaking some parts with his own alloys.
After finished up the actual repair, Jaune put in a chip that would track the weapon wherever it went. It was to help the owner track it in case it got lost, but it was also to help alert Jaune of any students that could hinder him while he was out in Vale on Promethean business.
He had also thought of adding in remote deactivators that could stop the weapon from doing anything like shooting or transforming if Jaune desired it. After some experimentation, he had abandoned that thought regretfully as it would be too obvious when a student opened the weapon up to do self-repairs.
After he was done with all the repairs for the day, he turned to work on a little side project he had been working on. A robotic butler he had planning to help him and his friends out around school. Its name was Alfred, an obscure a reference as could be, since only he would get it.
He had even programmed a British accent for the AI just for added giggles. It would help him plan his day, take over tasks for his team like keeping Nora entertained, and even cook for them. Nora's birthday was soon and he was planning on revealing Alfred on the occasion along with a large castle shaped pancake decorated in Nora's favorite color: pink.
He had been creating the body for it, a sturdy skeleton that could take an immense beating, similar to the combat droids in the training center. He put on a synthetic skin after padding the skeleton with fake muscles. He had thought of growing real skin from stem cells harvested from clones but it would've been too much work.
The end result was a human looking android that was as close to real intelligence as Jaune had dared. It wouldn't think of itself as a real human, Jaune had read enough science fiction to know that it was a bad time for everyone when a robot decided it was human.
It would interact and behave close to how a real human would, but it wouldn't be too close, to prevent anyone from getting too attached to him. That was another lesson the books had taught him.
Of course Jaune couldn't just make a semi-sentient robot butler and be happy with it. He had added in defense and tracking subroutines as well as a connection to the CCT to ensure that he would always be ready to assist when needed to. Jaune had added in many guns and such into the skeleton itself, ready to be drawn and fired at a moment's notice.
It had taken months (he had been planning this for a long time) to make everything from scratch, and Jaune couldn't be prouder with the result. He activated the large Shock crystal that powered Alfred and waited for the boot-up sequence. Setting all the parameters and assigning each person in Beacon to various categories from Teachers to Just Avoid to Really Important, it took a while before Alfred was up and ready.
"What is our next step master Arc?"
Jaune cracked a smile.
…
"OH MY GOD JAUNE IS THAT A STACK OF PANCAKES SHAPED LIKE A CASTLE? THERE'S EVEN FOUR OF US ON IT! REN LOOK!" Nora's yells and squeals of joy were sure to wake up the entire school, but Jaune didn't care. Nora was a good friend and like a sister to him, and he loved how delighted she was.
"I can see that Nora. How about we let the school have their sleep? It is Sunday after all." Ren's calm reply was expected.
Jaune saw Pyrrha stare at him happily, surprised at the effort he had put in. Leaning in, he whispered. "Now I know you're impressed with my superior baking skills, but there's something bigger coming. Don't tell Nora, she might pop a blood vessel."
Pyrrha giggled, the sound musical. "Jaune, what did you do now? Don't tell me you added a way for her hammer to act like a boomerang?"
They both stopped in their laughing and looked at each other mortified, silently promising never to speak of giving Nora something that was even more destructive.
Jaune grinned again. "No, it's nothing like that. It's going to be useful for all of us, even team RWBY."
Jaune handed out plates with pancakes on them to everyone and they all watched Nora rip into the huge stack of pancakes, her face caked in maple syrup, laughing the whole way.
"You said you have a way to handle the sugar high she's going to have after this. If it doesn't work, I'm blaming you for the damage." Ren said as he saw Nora cackle delightedly as she tore down a 'wall' of the pancake castle.
"If Beacon is still standing, you mean." They both chuckled.
Nora finished faster than most people finished breakfast, rubbing her stomach contentedly. She hopped up off the bench and bounced around.
"Hey Nora, you want to thank the person who made those pancakes?" Ren called after her as she dashed around almost as fast as Pro…Dr. Oobleck.
"Thanks Jaune, you're my best friend! Well Ren is, but I think he doesn't mind sharing. Those pancakes were so good and tasty and they were so soft and can you please make more sometime soon? How about now? It's been long enough! C'mon!" She rambled excitedly as she pulled Jaune to his feet.
"Woah woah, Nora, no need to thank me, I didn't actually make them." They all looked at him curiously, Nora looking a bit put out that her team leader hadn't actually made the pancakes. Now how was she supposed to get a limitless supply of them?
"Everyone, meet Alfred. He was the one who made them." Jaune gestured at the kitchen of the cafeteria where Alfred stepped out in a suit and jacket, hanging up an apron as he approached the tables.
"Hello Miss Valkyrie, I'm glad you enjoyed the pancakes. A special recipe, perfected by a long line of chefs. And don't look so sad, your wish for pancakes is granted! I am now your team's butler, and will be cooking for you young fellows." He looked around at their stunned faces jovially.
Jaune grinned. Maybe I should make like a collection of faces I've induced utter surprise or confusion on. I already have a great headstart.
…
Both team JNPR and team RWBY were sitting at the cafeteria. It was the first day of break and Ruby had called them together to discuss a plan she had had.
Blake was reading a book as usual, Weiss was primly eating food, Yang was eating grapes tossed at her by Nora, Ren was sitting calmly, and Pyrrha and Jaune were talking animatedly about fight strategies. Pretty normal off day for both teams.
What was not normal was the huge binder Ruby slammed onto their table. It was at least twice as thick as their History textbook (which was twice as thick as the Grimm Studies textbook). The cover read 'Best Day Ever Activities' in bright red ink, scribbled over something that suspiciously looked like 'Property of Weiss Schnee'.
Ruby cleared her throat to get their attention, somewhat unnecessarily as the large thud had gotten the attention of everyone at their table and tables around them.
"Sisters! Friends! Weiss." Weiss's yell of protest was ignored. "Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream."
"This ought to be good." Yang caught a strawberry in her mouth, nodding her appreciation at Nora.
"A dream that one day, the eight of us would come together and have the most fun anyone has ever had, ever!" Ruby soldiered on, ignoring both Yang's quip and Weiss's accusation of binder-stealing.
"What are you talking about?" Blake asked.
"Well guys, we all worked really hard over the semester and I think we all need to start the break off with a bang!" Ruby threw her hands up in excitement.
"Well, I'd rather start things off with a Yang. Eh? Anyone?" Yang grinned and looked around, only seeing distraught faces at her terrible pun. An apple smacked her in the face, courtesy of a nearby table. Yang threw it back, missing the culprit table and hitting the one behind it instead, knocking juice everywhere.
"I don't know; I think I'd rather not get in anything too exciting." Blake started reading again.
"Well, whatever we do, we should all do it toge…" The rest of the word was mumbled as her face was covered in pie.
Her face turned red below the icing as she glared at Nora, who at least had the decency of looking slightly ashamed. Weiss, all thoughts of being proper and ordered gone from her head, grabbed a ketchup bottle, hurling it at JNPR's table. It bounced off the hard surface, flew through the air and exploded on a table nearby, covering its occupants with red sauce. They all shrieked and ran from the cafeteria, hoping to salvage their uniforms.
This attack opened the floodgates as everyone started throwing everything they could get their hands on. Jaune didn't even know that the school served some of the things being thrown around.
Hold the line, was that a friggin swordfish? What?!
Jaune ran to the kitchen along with a crowd of other students, pulling out trays of spices that he stuffed into his hands and pockets. His uniform was already ruined from the splatters of food flying through the air, he may as well go all in.
He spied Pyrrha throwing soda cans, arcing the cans with her ability to control metal. Jaune had been so very jealous of Pyrrha when he had learned that. It would've been really useful in the lab when five different things around the room were threatening to explode at the same time. Jaune had been exhausted running back and forth across the lab the whole day.
Nora had gotten her hands on a pipe and a watermelon and was smacking people through the large windows of the cafeteria. Jaune motioned to her. She cleared her latest victim across the cafeteria and bounded over to him.
"Nora, it's time for Plan Castle Bunker. Tell Pyrrha and Ren, we need to get it done quickly before RWBY catches on."
Nora nodded, her eyes shining with excitement.
The plan was simple. Use whatever was around them to create a fort to fend off any attackers. It had been originally thought up to defend against Grimm attacks in the wild, but this seemed a good a place to put it in action as any.
Nora and Pyrrha used their strength to lift tables and chairs, following Jaune's orders on placement. He had the entire plans to the fort memorized. It would be very easily defendable, with winding corridors that had overhangs to dump liquids over any invading force. He had secured bottles of honey that he now poured into a vat. It would hang over the entrance, ready to surprise any incoming enemies.
Jaune, Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha all ran in and barricaded the hallway. Climbing to the top, they surveyed the land. Team RWBY had managed to reign victorious over everyone else as bodies lay around them, covered in pieces of food and slathered in condiments.
Ruby held up a milk carton. "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be delicious!" Ruby squeezed the milk carton, spraying milk. Her team cheered behind her, scooping up weapons of choice as they rushed forwards.
"Off with their heads!" Nora proclaimed in her attempt at a regal tone. They gathered up watermelons and loaded them into baskets strapped to planks that were balanced as if they were a seesaw. Jaune ran down the rows, launching each makeshift catapult's loads at the enemy.
The watermelons shattered around the charging members of RWBY, some barely missing. Ren had readied a second load and aimed it further in. Jaune launched them all yet again, this time knowing they would hit the girls.
"Yang! Go!" Ruby called. Yang moved ahead, slamming her turkey-covered fists together. Seriously, where the hell did she get the idea to do that? Where the hell did she get the turkeys?!
Yang waited for the watermelons to start descending before going to town. She kicked and punched, her limbs a blur as each hapless melon burst before hitting the ground.
Blake decided to join in, holding two baguettes. Ok, how the hell is that going to help? Maybe it's really stale?
The two partners made short work of the remaining watermelons. Yang launched her turkeys at the fort, knocking out some of the supporting tables' legs. The whole structure shifted slightly as Jaune cursed. "Pyrrha! Engage Blake!"
Pyrrha nodded once, grabbing a baguette for herself. She met Blake in the middle ground, slamming her own bread onto the raven-haired girl's. They disengaged, moving backwards. Pyrrha spun, trying to get Blake from the side, but Blake had anticipated that.
Jumping over the swing, Blake spun and tried to hit Pyrrha with her two blades. Pyrrha reacted quickly, cartwheeling backwards and swinging her own response at Blake.
Blake activated her semblance, using the image to boost herself up off the ground. She turned in midair, throwing a bread like a javelin.
Unfortunately for her, Pyrrha dodged out of the way and lunged forwards, striking Blake's now undefended torso, sending her flying backwards, crumbs trailing her, her own bread flying out of her hands.
Pyrrha caught it and used is as a javelin to try and surprise Yang at a distance. She quickly followed it up by two more, the second one slipping past her defense and slamming her to the floor.
Jaune saw Weiss find the swordfish that had been thrown earlier. He nodded at Nora who jumped off the castle, engaging the heiress, who could only evade the powerful swings Nora threw her way. Jaune saw Yang get up and nodded to Ren.
Ren had grabbed two long stick-like vegetables Jaune had never seen before. He used them to block Yang's once again turkey covered fists. Both Ren and Yang knew that the tactic was only to buy time, but there was nothing Yang could do except go along with it.
He glanced back at Nora who had launched Weiss into a pillar onto the far side of the hall. One down.
He glanced back at Ren, only to see both him and Yang ten feet in the air, Yang poised to deliver a solid strike straight into Ren's back. Jaune cringed as Ren was slammed into the tables below him. Nora had seen it too, and launched herself at Yang, who tried her best to avoid the hammer.
A couple swings later, Nora finally caught Yang right in the rib cage, launching her literally through the roof and into the sunny sky. Two down.
While Weiss and Yang were being dealt with, Blake had managed to get up and get hold of a sausage chain. Swinging it around, she slammed it into a surprised Nora, launching her backwards into a soda machine, breaking it.
Jaune decided to play his next card. "Pyrrha! Plan Color Pop!"
Pyrrha looked at him in confusion.
He sighed. He had told her of this idea of weaponizing something no one would suspect: soda cans! She had even used them earlier in the food fight!
"The soda, launch the soda!" Jaune yelled, waving his arms exasperatedly.
"Ah right! Sorry!" came the response.
She crouched down, concentrating. The cans all around her suddenly lifted into the air and formed two pincers, each containing dozens of cans.
One slammed into Blake, each can exploding and launching Blake backwards into a wall. It held her there for a second as the barrage continued before she slumped to the ground, out for the count. Three down, and we have three left. Great odds.
Ruby looked at Blake's body, lying crumpled on the ground and then at Jaune's smirking face, rage and a promise of pain in her eyes. She crouched, then activated her semblance, running inhumanly fast.
Air bent around her, dust and debris flying into the cyclone Ruby was creating. Pyrrha lost control of the remaining pincer and all the cans joined the deadly looking cyclone. Jaune saw Ruby heading for them, and knew that there was nothing he had that could stop the incoming barrage. But he sure as hell wasn't going to let Ruby win.
He had stuffed the spices that he had taken into napkins and tied them off, creating a sort of grenade. Waiting for Ruby to completely commit to her course, he heaved them at her, the little bundles exploding over her body, flying into her eyes.
She fell to the ground, clawing at her eyes. Jaune barely had time to be smug before the cyclone hit him and his team, throwing them into their fort, collapsing the entire structure on top of them,
What a start of break, a food fight and guaranteed detention from Goodwitch!
He could already tell he would regret this food fight.
Obligatory AN: What'd you think of the chapter? Anything I can fix? Anything you especially liked? Please review and PM me with this stuff, I love to get them and it helps me write better. Thanks for reading!
